Week #7 - Jana’s Birthday trip to Santa Marta and the Science Fair
Trip to Santa Marta / Taganga for Jana's birthday
After all our hard work on Friday we headed off for a break in Santa Marta, or rather Taganga, and to celebrate Jana’s birthday. We set off on Friday morning and arrived after a rather tiring bus journey to a beautiful apartment with a terrace in Taganga, thanks to Adriana.
Some beautiful photos of Taganga, courtesy of Jana Rajnohova
After settling in with an ice cold beer we headed out to the beach and then to the Mirador, a favourite in Taganga, with an impressive view of the town and mountains and two for one cocktails.
Cocktails at the Mirador
We headed into Santa Marta where we visited the Parque de los Novios, Lovers’ Park and went out dancing in La Puerta, a popular crossover bar, with a great mix of salsa, champeta and other funky rhythms. We all had a great time dancing after some classes from Laura on how to move our hips Colombian style.
On Saturday lovely Adriana had organized a trip to Playa Grande with a local fisherman. We spent a relaxing morning on the beach, swimming and sunbathing, although unfortunately the water was too cloudy to snorkel. We returned to Taganga and after one of many fantastic fish lunches we all went back to the apartment to get ready for a Systema Solar concert at Bello Horizonte beach in Santa Marta.
The concert was excellent, full of energy and good vibes. Systema Solar are one of Colombia’s most popular bands, playing a mix of traditional coastal rhythms such as champeta and cumbia with hip hop and psychodelic visuals. For more information see the links to this article and the video to our favourite song (it mainly talks about eating delicious Colombian fish, what a surprise).
Yo Voy Ganao - Systema Solar (Video Oficial) [External site]
A photo of us enjoying the concert!
On Sunday, Jana’s birthday, Jana, Josie and Laura headed off to Rodadero to visit Laura’s old neighbourhood, check out the beach and find a mochila (artesanal bag made by local indigenous groups) as Jana’s birthday present. Meanwhile Alex and Adriana cooked a delicious apple and carrot cake which we all tucked into later with a glass of wine!
Jana's cake and birthday fun!
Reluctantly we headed back to Cartagena on Monday morning after the clean up. It was a bank holiday as in Colombia they celebrate the ‘discovery’ of the Americas, or Colombus day, as the Dia de la Raza, to commemorate the creation of a new cultural identity rather than the colonization of the continent.
Meetings
Some important meetings were had at the beginning of the week to consolidate the carbon credits community project, which will be led by Alex Prey, represented by Ruby Arcila (community of Barú) and supervised by Luis Fernando (FUPAC) and Bryony (CEFAS). Alex, Laura and Adriana advanced in their personal projects in the meeting with Gabriel and Jana, Josie and Alex are happy to be getting their visas sorted over the next 2 weeks.
Conference
Last week we all worked together to make a poster for the University of Cartagena science fair, explaining the project and its objectives.
The poster we made for the conference.
This week we had the opportunity to present it in the Claustro de San Agustin. On Thursday Alex and Yanelci represented the group and Alex was interviewed by Canal Cartagena!
The science fair and Alex being interviewed.
